Timeline

Remington and Russell

A model dressed in a U.S. cavalry uniform sitting astride a barrel in front of Remington’s studio in New Rochelle, New york.

Ca. 1890

Remington’s photo of Wolf Voice, who was used as the model for the main character in Remington’s “Sundown Leflare” stories.

1891

January 3

Remington visits the camp of the 7th Cavalry to obtain details about the Sioux uprising and the massacre at Wounded Knee Creek.

March

Remington and Eva are guests of General Nelson A. Miles on a trip to Mexico City to attend a review of the Mexican army.

June

Remington is elected an associate member of the National Academy of Design.

June

Remington sends a new Winchester rifle to the Cheyenne scout Red Bear for saving him from hostile Indians back in December.

June 20

Remington writes Powhatan Clarke about a very large painting he is working on, depicting a headlong charge by the U.S. Cavalry right at the viewer. “You see they are coming like hell & I want to get the title ‘Right front into line, come on!’ The ‘Come on’ is all in the expression of the officer & the bugler is blowing the charge—I am going to have the men with carbines instead of sabers—the dead horse tells of the trouble in front as does the faces of the men.

September 8

Remington writes Powhatan Clarke: “I am going to have an ex—and sale this winter and am devoting myself almost exclusively to American and Mex. military subjects… The cavalryman’s breakfast (now in the Amon Carter Museum collection) [is] part of them. I have done horror—“The Mex. Sheepherder in Apache Land’—dead withered body hanging by one leg over a cliff—I heard about it—years ago in Arizona. It’s a regular ‘ladies faint’ of a picture.” This painting is now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston as part of the Hogg Brothers collection.

1892

Remington does the illustrations for Richard Harding Davis’ The West from a Car-Window, published by Harper & Brothers.

January 5

Remington writes the venerable historian Francis Parkman to say he will be illustrating a deluxe edition of Parkman’s The Oregon Trail. “You paint men very vividly with your pen and I fancy I can almost see your people,” Remington enthused. “I shall never be able to fill your mind’s eye but if I manage to symbolize the period successfully I shall be content.

January 7

Parkman writes Remington: “I am very glad that you are to illustrate the Oregon Trail, for I have long admired your rendering of Western life, as superior to that of any other artist. You have seen as much and observed so closely that you have no rival in this department.” He describes to Remington the dress and demeanor of the mountain men and trappers that he knew and offers observations and recommendations.

April 22

Remington answers a query from a Mrs. Sage, in part: “As to instantaneous photography—I could write a large library book about it and its relation to art. I often use photographs in illustrating for Harpers Weekly but almost never for magazine work… I can beat a Kodak—that is get more action and better action because Kodaks have no brains—no discrimination… Photography bears the same relation to an illustrator as a typewriter does to a lawyer or reporter or an editorial writer. The artist must know more than the Kodak.”

May

Remington sails to Europe with Poultney Bigelow on assignment from Harper’s to visit Germany and Russia to write and illustrate a series of articles; Bigelow marveled at Remington’s ability to draw from memory: “This I emphasize because many a jealous rival has taxed him with employing the camera to excess. The truth is that Remington could see more than his peers, and could retain longer the impression made on his mind.” Remington then travels to Paris and London, where he attends Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show on the Thames.

July

Remington goes to Canton; purchases a sixteen-foot Rushton canoe and takes a fifty-mile trip on the Oswegatchie River, making sketches for an article he writes titled “Black Water and Shallows.”

Ca. 1892

Remington riding his horse “Beauty” on the grounds of Endion, his home in New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

Remington galloping on his horse “Beauty” near the stable at Endion, New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

Remington posing in wooly chaps in front of Endion, his home in New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

Remington holding his horse “Beauty” in front of the stable at Endion, New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

Remington in a western hat on horseback at Endion, New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody on horseback at his Wild West Show.

Ca. 1892

Remington lifting up the foreleg of “Beauty,” at the stable at Endion, his home in New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

Remington galloping on his horse “Beauty” near the stable at Endion, New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

Remington posing his horse “Beauty” in front of the stable at Endion, his home in New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

Remington riding his horse “Beauty” on the grounds of Endion, his home in New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

Remington holding the reins of a grazing horse at Endion, his house in New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

Autographed studio portrait of Annie Oakley; photo by H. and R. Stiles, Kensington, High Street, London

Ca. 1892

Remington riding his horse “Beauty” on the grounds of at Endion, his home in New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

Remington trotting on his horse “Beauty” at Endion, his home in New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

View of the stable at Endion, Remington’s home in New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

Remington posing in a bowler hat in front of the steps at Endion, his house in New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

Remington riding his horse “Beauty” near the stable at Endion, New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

Remington galloping on his horse “Beauty” near the stable at Endion, his home in New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

Remington galloping on his horse “Beauty” near the stable at Endion, New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

A distant wintery view of Endion, Remington’s home in New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1892

Studio portrait of William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody; photo by Stacy, Brooklyn, New York

1893

January

Remington has an exhibition at the American Art Association. On January 24 he writes Powhatan Clarke: “I made $7300 at my sale. It was a rather good sale—a decided art triumph as people and the papers say and will in its ramifications be of benefit to me. I have since many orders.” Of one hundred of his works; ninety-six pieces are sold for the total, an amount equal to the entire proceeds from the spring exhibition at the National Academy.

January-March

Remington travels to Mexico for Harper’s to write and illustrate articles on ranching in northern Mexico. The destination is a remote ranch 225 miles north of Chihuahua named Bavicora, where he spends four weeks sketching and making notes. Returning north to Albuquerque, where Eva joins him; they travel to California; Remington sketches horses at the Putnam ranch near San Diego.

Remington meets the writer Owen Wister on September 8 at Norris Basin in Yellowstone. They take a train east to St. Paul, talking about future collaborations; Remington travels to Chicago to visit the World’s Columbian Exposition, where fifteen of his illustrations are exhibited in the Liberal Arts Building.

October

Remington travels west to Fort Wingate, New Mexico, to go on a grizzly bear hunt with General Nelson A. Miles, General Hugh Scott, Colonel Leonard Wood, and others.

1893

Vaqueros breaking a horse at Bavicora Ranch, Chihuahua, Mexico.

Ca. 1893

Action photo of a soldier riding his horse at a gallop towards the camera; taken at Endion, Remington’s home in New Rochelle, New York.

Ca. 1893

Main Street, Chihuahua, Mexico.

1894

In addition to participating in other exhibitions, Remington exhibits a selection of drawings at the Union League Club in New York.

Remington and the writer Poultney Bigelow travel to North Africa on a commission from Harper’s to do articles on the French military posts in Algeria.

April

Remington begins working with Owen Wister, illustrating the latter’s stories on the American West; seven of Wister’s stories are published in Harper’s Weekly in 1894.

May

Remington travels to Chicago at the request of General Nelson A. Miles to write and illustrate an article about the Pullman Strike then underway.

September

Remington travels west to New Mexico as a guest of General Miles.

October

Remington’s next-door neighbor, the playwright Augustus Thomas, visits the artist in his studio to observe him painting, and tells him he has “a sculptor’s degree of vision;” at this point Remington begins thinking of modeling a sculpture.

November

The sculptor Frederick Ruckstull visits Remington and encourages him to try sculpture; Ruckstull returns to New York and purchases sculptor’s tool. Remington joins him in the sculptor’s studio to learn the rudiments of constructing an armature and modeling in clay and wax.